N.Y. Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer shows that he intends to walk it like he talks it and has announced a plan to unilaterally enforce ethical and campaign contirubtion reforms on himself and his staff. This is excellent stuff.
Moving swiftly in his efforts to change the culture of Albany, Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer said Thursday that he would unilaterally stop accepting campaign contributions greater than $10,000, which is less than a fifth of the $50,100 in individual donations currently allowed by state law.
Mr. Spitzer also said that from now on he would refuse to take advantage of several notorious loopholes in the state’s campaign finance laws that allow corporations and limited liability companies to circumvent donation limits by contributing through subsidiaries and other related entities.
In addition, he unveiled a series of ethics rules for members of his administration, including a pledge that neither he nor his aides would hold fund-raisers in Albany during the legislative session. That is prime fund-raising time for politicians here, since they are always able to corral lobbyists to attend their events.
. . .
Mr. Spitzer announced a number of areas where he said he planned to hold his administration to a higher standard than the law demands.
He said members of his administration would not be allowed to take gifts of more than nominal value, a stricter standard than the current law, which allows officials to receive gifts worth up to $75. Members of his administration who become lobbyists will be prohibited from lobbying any part of the executive branch for two years after they leave their posts, he said; the current law only bans former state officials from lobbying the specific agency where they worked.
Mr. Spitzer said neither he nor his lieutenant governor, David A. Paterson, would accept fees for speeches or appear in taxpayer-financed commercials, two things Governor Pataki was sometimes criticized for. Mr. Spitzer recalled that when he ran for attorney general in 1998, the incumbent, Dennis C. Vacco, appeared in numerous antismoking ads.
"Back then I said, you know, there are many persuasive voices that teenagers may pay attention to," he said, "but my guess is the attorney general is not the most persuasive voice."
Mr. Spitzer said that he would not accept contributions from members of his administration whom he can hire and fire, so as not to create the perception that they have to make donations to keep their jobs. Members of the Pataki administration routinely attended fund-raisers and contributed to his campaign.
Of course, the Republicans are already having nightmares about the gravy train leaving the tracks:
His announcement put pressure on Senator Joseph L. Bruno, who was re-elected here Thursday as Republican majority leader of the State Senate, one of the three positions that in effect run state government. Mr. Bruno did not sound as if he has any plans to adopt Mr. Spitzer’s ban on fund-raisers in Albany during the legislative session, saying it was "nonsense" to argue that they fostered a bad perception.
"If they want to support people here, they ought to be able to do it," Mr. Bruno said. "And for anyone that thinks that anybody that makes a contribution buys anything other than indicating their positive support — well, then, they’re just wrong."
They're just wrong? Does he think that people actually believe that corporations and lobbyists heap piles of cash on the politicians they're trying to get to do their bidding for any reason other than to get them to do their bidding?
Ethical/campaign reform has been infamously stalled in New York State for many years and I can only hope that Spitzer's move lights a fire under the collective rear-ends of the State Legislators. While I'm not holding my breath, Spitzer hopes that his move will result in wider change:
Mr. Spitzer said he hoped the Legislature would follow his lead by passing far-reaching laws that would eventually apply to all state officials and candidates.
Mr. Spitzer, who raised nearly $42 million in his campaign for governor, in part by taking many large contributions and some that took advantage of the legal loopholes that he has now decided to forgo, said that during campaigns, candidates, including himself, traditionally say, "You cannot expect me to unilaterally disarm."
"We are doing that today," he said. "We are doing that because we believe it is important to set a tone, to send a message and to lead by example."
. . .
Mr. Spitzer said he hoped to send a message by deciding not to attend fund-raisers in Albany during the session, which typically runs from January through June. "There is an unfortunate reality that there are many fund-raisers here in Albany on nights when the Legislature is in session when lobbyists and others congregate, can contribute to legislators, and then show up the next morning to ask them to consider A, B, or C," he said. "And so we are simply saying, we will not participate in that."
The only way that Spitzer's reforms will spread and be adopted as law by the New York State Legislature - and then, hopefully, spread to other State's and (dare to dream) to the federal level - is if we get behind him and pressure and/or shame other politicians into following his example.
Ethical/campaign funding reforms like this will only spread if the people benefitting from the status quo realize that sticking with the status quo will hurt them politically and/or that helping to enact real reforms can actually benefit them politically. This will only happen if the voters get behind leaders like Spitzer and prominently support his efforts and punish those politicians who don't join them.